18/12/2004
am kinda glad to have left switzerland for france... the weather here is far more agreeable. less cold and windy, and somehow, it feels good to see green rolling valleys as opposed to barren snow fields... ;) anyway, last nite was spent in lausanne, capitale de olymique! woo, finally entered the french speaking cantons of switzerland... ah sighs, french is such a beautiful language, can here it rolling off the tongues... i wish i had learnt it all four years... now i can do is speak rubbish... well, at least today at the shop, i managed to tell her what i wanted in french. dun laugh, i just told her 3 small eiffel towers. and off course, merci beaucoup and bonjour etc. sadness. i'm determined to learn the language again, hopefully in uni, or maybe during boring NS days? ;) haha... i'll see...
anyway, the next day, we went to visit the olympic musuem... lausanne is actually where everyone assembles to vote for the host city for the olympics every 2 years... the place was less grand than i expected... haha. well, i would've expected something so impt to be v v grand... but well, it was quite simple. hmmm, curious. after that, we left for geneva! beautiful beautiful city... :) wonder architecture, ancient cathedrals, and a nice lake! haha, and french speaking too! :) love it! and went to see the red cross head quarters... interesting story behind it. apparently this rich guy in geneva founded it, and spent so much money on helping pple until he went bankrupt... and so of course head quarters in geneva. oops, forgot tt guy's name... :/ visited the reformation monument (marks the rise of protestants against the catholic church cuz the catholic church was too extravagent and corrupt), and the UN Humanitarian head quarters... again, not grand? :( haha... oh wells, visited many other places, but am lazy to list every thing down... and my guide so can't pronounce anything french... :P
hope paris is as beautiful as i imagined... its always been my dream to visit paris since young... hope it turns out just as i imagine... :) hope i wish i were french... the pple here are so elegant and good looking and the language, the buildings... and yes, their one of the few races tt have food tt can even come close to chinese food... so far nothing even comes close to chinese or french cuisine! yumm... :)
19/12/2004
currently in a hotel in paris... just had a nice long bubble bath... :) day's been quite gd, except for certain pple who keep bugging me even though i'm overseas. should've just switched off my phone. bah. anyway, left burgundy in the morning and headed to paris! on the way, we toured the versailles palace... wow, its a fine piece of work man. so so grand, with its beautiful painted roofs, the ornaments made of gold, grand flooring, crystal chandeliers, high walls, lush gardens (with patterns) and the endless lakes. it stunning really... :) no wonder there was the french revolution to overthrow the king... he lived in such luxury! :/ and i'm sure yh, yuan and moby will remember marie antionette and "eat cake".. lol! ;)
okie... then we went into the city for shopping first... the city is so beautiful, just as i had imagined. its really like great older architecture intergrated into modern buildings... the high rise buildings are else where... and the lighting and all, it just enhances the beauty of the whole place... tres beau! :) its xmas season, and pple are shopping everywhere, so it was so crowded... :( haha, really, there are police to control shopping crowds... haha! went round the place to buy stuff, thankfully stuff here is slightly less ex than in switzerland... ;) went to galerie lafayette, and boy is it large! its got 3 buildings, each five storeys huge, and v large... think its even larger than ngee ann city in area... impressive! have to plan tmr's journey later cuz its free day...
after walking round, we boarded the bus to transport us to a cruise. shit, the traffic so bad. we were stuck in this 50m stretch of road for like 15min... haha! but we made it to the cruise on river seine... its so gorgeous at nite! all the monuments like the eiffel tower, the notre dame and the mini statue of liberity (real one), and all the museums and what not are so nice at nite... illuminated greatly! and of course, its so different what u're seeing it on a river... :) it was v v cold though, with the stupid wind blowing everywhere. the pictures aren't v nice cuz the boat's travelling too fast to take many nice pix... :( oh well, come see it for yrself next time... :)
20/12/2004
last nite in paris... :( oh, i'm so in love with paris... haha, think this will be one of the highlights of my journey... dun think i'd like london as much... ;) paris has a huge circle in its center, where the arc de triumphe is... then, there are 12 spokes radiating from it. the circle is really really huge, so it can fit practically 5 or 6 cars in terms of width quite comfortably. then there are different avenues in the city, up to a total of 20 if i remember correctly. and of course avenue 1 is closest to the center... prices are so steep in any of the avenues... average rental of 3000 euros for a 2 room apartment... and i u wanna buy, its 2000 euro per square meter. or, SGD4400... haha. and these are like 100 year old apartments... and pple complain property prices in singapore are high... :/ okie, we took a tour of the city, its quite interesting cuz the older buildings are really well preserved... so basically for many km, all the buildings are not higher than 6 storeys, all of the same height unless its something special, like a chateau or whatever. the sidewalks are super spacious and all, so its quite nice... :) went up the tour eiffel, and the structure is really quite interesting. took pix from interesting angles, so u can check them out... :P oh, and the wonder thing is cuz everything is not more than 6 storeys high, when u do go up the tower, u get to unobstructed view for like as far as u can see... tres bonne! also saw notre dame, its such an amazing piece of work, taking 200 years to finish. i wish i got down there to see, but sighs, spent too long in the louvre, and it was getting quite late, so i didn't go in the end... :( took some pix as we passed by in the coach though...
after lunch, went to the louvre musuem... its also quite a huge building, former palace... wow, it really has dunno how many km of exhibits. u got literally take days if u wanna stop and look at every piece of art for just 1 min... so i just went to see a few select pieces, like Mona Lisa (duh), venus di milo, napolean's self coronation, and some other stuff... its quite an amazing collection i must say... mona lisa is quite small a painting really... haha. and i'm really surprised at how open the whole museum is, its like all these world famous paintings and sculptures hardly have any guards... and even the venus di milo can be touched?!! :/ gosh... will be such a tragedy if any gets damaged somehow... anyway, i seem to be a terrible target by all these stupid pple selling souvenirs. wth, like at the eiffel tower, had like 2 or 3 pple tailing me, and there were so many other pple on e same tour as me not attended to?! and i repeatedly said no, and someone even got angry at me for not buying? like, go ask someone else can? lol. then at the louvre, had like 3 different pple ask me to have my caricacture drawn. one said i've interesting hair (lol), so he wanted to draw me. another one said i've funny shoes (err, wrong approach)... lol, and the last one said i'd make a nice model for him, and gave me half price, and said he would draw n if i didn't like it wun have to buy it...! :) i was so tempted, but well, it was v cold n still q ex, and i had no wish to stand there waiting... ;)
after the louvre, took a looooong walk down to champs elysees... wah it was a v long walk. bah. cuz of tt, couldn't go notre dame. well well, champs elysees wasn't as amazing as i expected... its just like orchard road, with a larger crowd and sidewalks 2-3 times as large, shops all quite ex and v v huge... haha! and of course, no shopping centers, there aren't any in paris i think... but seriously, i feel tt after visiting singapore, orchard has the potential to be one of the best shopping hubs in the world, if we expand the sidewalks somehow, enlarge shops and have more branded stuff around. just need to make it more classy, cuz the shopping space is there liao, and in fact its v gd cuz its all so concentrated... just need to make it more up class. hehe, will be waiting for tt to happen... :)
oh, took metro today! manage to navigate my family round, so happy! :) there are like 20 lines lor... and well, stations not as nice as SG... but gd thing is its all underground, so it saves lotsa space, and is well concealed. AND the trains arrive like every min or less, so its damn fast... and the trains move faster than in SG... v efficient system. not v safe and as comfortable, but v efficient and somewhat less crowded cuz of how fast trains come... :)
21/12/2004
hmmm, lack of cheap internet connection is no fun... :( bah. well, 2 more days n i'll get some net access huh? :) anyway, in london now... apparently everyone is so much happier than in Paris, cuz they feel more welcomeed here... partly cuz of the fact tt everything's in english, and tt e pple r less snobbish abt their language... ;)
oh wells, the stupid pound is so strong, 3.4:1 is just... :/ haha... it used to be 2.8 last time... :( had a sucky flight here... the stupid terminal at Paris caught fire and we were trapped in the boarding lounge for 2 hours! bah. so retarded... :( the 2 hour delay was so boring, cuz the lounge had nothing... :( changi airport is really world class i can tell u... its so so good... :)
so far my impression london... hmmm, bad traffic. the roads are too narrow, and there are too many cars. the air is so polluted, and well, it isn't as cultural as paris, where so many many buildings have been preserved... but it seems the stuff are more affordable, there are less upmarket stuff, unlike in paris where everything is exhorbitant. haha. i actually managed to buy clothes! ;) haha... there are so many plays and musical going on though, i'm having a hard time trying to decide what to watch tmr... but it'll probably be les miserable, chicago or phantom of the opera... hehe. can't wait! its been quite long since i watched a musical or play of any sort...
think i'm going to have such an exhausting time when i reach singapore... maybe i dun wanna go back so early anymore. quite contrary to how i've been feeling the few days before...
PS: the british are no where as gd looking as the french... lol! they're plumper, and their features aren't as gd. the french are really a beautiful race... deep set eyes, long lashes, nice high noses... the girls all have such good hair and skin, and the guys have nice jaws... hehe. should migrate here... ;)
22/12/2004
london is boring... its so lousy compared to paris. river thames is brown, while river seine is clear. the air here stinks! lol, the trains take much longer to come than in paris and they travel sooo much slower, and the roads are so freaking narrow... :/ bah. haha... oh, but the number of musicals n shows tt run here is phenomenal! i could practically catch anything i'd ever wanted to watch... in the end, i ended up watching chicago! boy was it good... so sensual and funny! lol... after watching the play, i feel the movie was a v gd adaptation... :)
going home soon... sighs... wonder what awaits me back at home... :(